Twiversed
by x-rayLady
Summary: How much more different would Twilight be if the situation was reversed? What would have happened if Edward had been human and Bella was the vampire? Read to find out...
1. Chapter 1 The hellhounds of High School

**Twiversed**

_**Summary: **__ How much more different would Twilight be if the situation was reversed? What would have happened if Edward had been human and Bella was the vampire? Well, Edward Masen has it all: looks, money and brains. And yet, this Adonis keeps to himself and doesn't date. Why? Well, how much fun does dating sound to you if you can read the minds of everybody around you? Until the mysterious Cullen family moves to Forks and Edward gets nothing but mental silence from the beautiful Bella._

**A/N Okay, I don't know what has gotten into me. I have already two stories running and it's hard enough to keep up with them as is, but well, I had this strike of inspiration and it seemed too good to let go… So, I decided to start with one chapter and see how people respond to it. If many people are interested, I will continue the story. If not, well, I am gonna put it on hold or delete it all together. So, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Just be sure to give me the heads up if you think this idea is too good to waste ;-)**

**Chapter 1: The hell-hounds of High School**

How I dreaded the purgatory that people around here liked to call High School. Most people would already agree it earns that title, just because of all the boring lectures you have to attend. But, well, in my case there was a bit more to it. If you thought lectures were a pain, try hearing the said lecture in tenfold. Or hearing how bored and impatient the teachers actually are with you. Yeah, I was a telepath, and as much fun as that seemed, believe me, it's not. A royal pain in the ass -or mind in this case- was a more accurate description. Oh, what I wouldn't give for the ability to switch it off! My heritage, my looks, name your prize, I was pretty sure it wouldn't be too high to pay.

Yeah, because as if gifted in a supernatural way wasn't enough, I was also gifted in the normal human way. I had green emerald eyes that people seemed to find attractive and tousled bronze hair. My body wasn't bad either. I wasn't muscular or anything, but I was in good shape, not an ounce of fat anywhere. My family ran a jewelry business, which brings in quite a few bucks, but our wealth was a bit more than just that. I had this hunch I was not the only gifted one in the family. For all I knew one of my ancestors had the uncanny talent to predict the stock market, or the ability to turn metal into gold, which ever works best.

Not that I would ever dream about telling my parents what I could do. Yeah, this is the 21st century alright and people no longer burn witches at stakes. But face it, if I was already feeling extremely embarrassed by what I am hearing, imagine what my parents would feel like, knowing that I knew? If you heard your parents' bed room past time, you'd make sure you didn't walk in on them either, right? Well, let's just stick to saying I didn't need to do that to get the whole movie anyway. They may not be entirely aware of my special gift and I was planning on keeping it that way, but I was betting my mother sensed more than she let on to. And by sensing I meant 'sixth sense' kind of sensing, not just female intuition. No, as far as my parents were concerned, I just suffered from bad cases of head ache.

And really, I actually believed that being rich and good looking made things only worse for me. It might seem an ego-tripper's heaven, to hear people all around you thinking how gorgeous you were, but it just grossed me out to have to hear and see all their fantasies. Ever had this feeling someone undressed you with their eyes? Not fun, but imagine what it would feel like if you actually saw the mental pictures. Ew, what was I, just a mindless sex toy? And knowing that the girls only wanted to go out with you because it would make everybody look at them didn't exactly help to warm you up for them. Nor was the fact that they craved your expensive presents rather than your presence inviting.

But it wasn't all dark and doom, people's thoughts could be funny at times. Like now, the ones that Mike Newton was having, for instance. Mr. Varner had just been repeating the formula for surface and volume calculations.

"Surface of circle equals pi r square," he had recited.

_Pie? I bet this one isn't as tasty as the one mom made yesterday, yummy._

I tried to muffle a snicker when I heard it. Sadly, I failed, and the teacher called upon me.

"Care to tell us what's so funny, Edward?" Mr. Varner snapped.

_Yeah, Masen, what was so funny, freak? _ The thoughts of Tyler intruded my mind.

"I am sorry, sir, I remembered a joke," I smiled apologetically to the teacher.

I could hear his inner debate. He was outweighing my perfect grades and my usually impeccable behavior against this disturbance of his class. My reputation won.

"Alright then, Edward, but I expect you to pay attention to the lecture for the rest of this class," he said.

"Of course, sir," I replied submissively.

_Bootlicker! _ Another one of Tyler's poisonous thoughts reached me. I sighed. The kid was clearly jealous, but I failed to see why. He got all the girls he wanted. Okay, truthfully, after I showed no interest in them. But wouldn't the outcome matter more than the motivation? Clearly these girls wouldn't be stupid enough to tell him he was their second choice, right?

The bell rang, announcing that this lesson had finally come to a close. Lunch time was up next, not that it would be so much better for me. The cafeteria would harbor more minds, almost my free ticket to head ache land. But if I ate fast enough, I could escape to my car for a while and listen to some music. Distance was the only thing that had an effect on my ability. If I would go far enough from all people, I would be able to suppress the voices completely. My car wasn't nearly far enough, but it was sufficient to make them seem like a whisper. Because of this, I had already set my mind on a future as a hermit.

When I sat foot in the cafeteria building, the latest gossip reached me from all directions. Apparently there was a new family moving to Forks this weekend. They had a bunch of teenager kids, all adopted, and they would start school on Monday. That was actually good news for a change. There seemed to be boys as well as girls, so that meant that at least for a couple of days, I would be off the female radar. And, with a little luck, off anybody's radar as they would all be too busy paying attention to the newcomers. A smile lit my features.

_Oh, did I just see Edward Masen smile? Good, the boy seems so unhappy most of the time. He seems like a nice person, though, but he's always keeping to himself. Maybe he's just shy, like me. Maybe I should go talk to him some time, but I wish I would know what to say._

Ah, the sweet mental voice of Angela Weber. Her thoughts made me smile even wider. If there would be one girl in the whole school that I considered dating, it would be her. She was always so kind with her thoughts. But the girl was just so content with what she had and up until recently, she had no interest in dating at all. So I didn't want to press on, afraid of making her feel awkward. Another drawback of being in someone else's head, I supposed, I'd feel every bit of her awkwardness and probably feel guilty for it too. But I knew that she was currently having a little crush on Ben Cheney, so she was more than ever a no-go now. I guessed that may be the sole benefit of the mind-reading thing. I'd never embarrass myself by asking someone who had no interest in me at all. But between rejection and the constant stream of venomous thoughts, I'd gladly go with the first.

I grabbed myself a piece of pizza and a soda. Not that the cafeteria food around here was usually very tasty, but at least pizza was fast and easy. I took my seat at my usual spot, a small table at the far end of the room, with the sole purpose of suppressing as many mental voices as possible. Trying very hard to focus on my food and my food only, I shoved the pizza in my mouth as quickly as possible and ran for my car afterward.

It wasn't until long that Debussy's Claire de Lune filled my car and my head. Well, most of my head, anyway. Sighing, I rubbed my temple to make the upcoming head ache go away. One more afternoon, Edward, one more afternoon and it'll be weekend, I sang my mantra to myself. The weather was going to be relatively good, so I'd be able to escape to the meadow. There were times that the meadow was the only thing that kept me sane. The place was so isolated that, for once, I was able to be alone in my head. I wouldn't know how I would have survived if we were still living in Phoenix. You were never alone in a city that big.

I haven't always been a telepath, thankfully, it started kicking in with puberty. It was more subtle at first, I heard only the thoughts from people that stood close enough to me. And not even all their thoughts, back then. It sure spooked my friends out, when I started answering the questions in their head and not only the ones that were spoken out loud. Thank God I had a better grip before things got out of hand. But when it intensified, I started complaining to my parents about major head aches. That part obviously wasn't a ruse, but the part where I hinted that it seemed worse when I had been outside was. At some point I purposely wondered out loud whether it could be due to the air pollution in the big city on how it might be different in a smaller city. It didn't take my parents long to take the bait, it turned out my mother had always wanted to live more rural. But they said they stayed because of me, not wanting to tear me away from my friends and all.

So I got what I wanted and the head aches improved when we moved to Forks, although I knew it had nothing to do with the air quality. Once enrolled in the new High School, I made sure to keep to myself. Not that I didn't want friends, but until I found a way to switch this thing off, social life would have to wait. It's not that nobody tried to befriend me, hell, more like nobody _didn't_ try; but after a few weeks, they got the message. And like I said, hearing all the ulterior motives wasn't exactly appealing, so it wasn't as hard to stick to my plan as I thought it would be. My parents knew I had no friends, but they never brought it up, so neither did I. I guess it helped that I was happier by myself.

I hoped some of my class mates would tell the newcomers I was a weirdo who was best to be avoided, it would save me the effort. But well, those were worries for later. More eminent was the bell that was currently ringing. I sighed and went back in to endure the last part of my suffering for this week.

**A/N So, what do you think, worth continuing? Review and let me know, please.**


	2. Chapter 2: Meet the Cullens

**A/N Hey peeps, I decided to go on with this one. Somehow it's pretty easy to write elaborate chapters for this story, so sit back for a nice lengthy chappy ;-) You'll notice that I did my best to keep everyone pretty close to the original, despite the small twist with Edward and Bella. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Chapter 2: Meet the Cullens**

"Come on, guys, we don't want to be late for our first school day," my pixie-like sister squeaked enthusiastically.

"Jeez, Alice, cool it, we are vampires, we can run at super speed, remember?" my brother Emmett complained. He was big and muscular, but somehow managed to keep resembling a teddy bear.

"Yes, Alice, why are you so excited anyway?" my other sister, Rosalie, complained. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. If I didn't love her so much, I would be too embarrassed by my own looks to be able to stand being in the same room with her.

"I have a really good feeling about today," Alice replied.

"Good feeling, as in vision-good?" I chipped in now, my attention captured. My favorite sister had the uncanny ability to see the future. It wasn't set in stone, though, it could change. Alice saw the results of the decisions that people took, if they changed their mind, so would the future.

"I don't know, something in between, I guess," Alice admitted.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emmett wanted to know, but Alice just shrugged and tucked her husband's arm. Alice and Jasper had already been together at the moment we met, which made him the last one of my brothers.

I was the only one of the family who hadn't found her mate yet. Rosalie had Emmett, Jasper had Alice and my father Carlisle had his wife Esme. Carlisle wasn't technically my father, but he was the one that turned me into a vampire years ago. I was dying of Spanish influenza and he decided to save me. A bit later Esme joined us, followed by Rosalie, neither of them more alive than I had been at the time of their changing. When Rosalie found Emmett, he had just been attacked by a bear. She rushed him to Carlisle to save him too. Alice and Jasper found us on their own later, guided by Alice's visions.

For the outside world, Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife Esme had adopted me and my siblings. We made sure that our mates had a different last name. So Rosalie and Jasper were currently posing as twins and they used Rosalie's original last name 'Hale.' Alice, Emmett and myself had taken on the last name 'Cullen.' We were supposedly adopted, while the other two were foster kids, related to Esme.

We only stayed in one place for a small amount of time, in order not to bring it to the people's attention that we didn't age. In between homes, we spent time with the Denali clan in Alaska. They were the closest thing in this world we had to extended family. Like us, the Denali's didn't drink the blood of humans, but hunted animals instead. This attitude allowed us to co-exist with humans and even mingle in their society. We tried to start in a new place as young as possible, so my siblings and I graduated a lot from High School. It was boring, but very much worth it. We'd lived in Forks before, but Alice and Jasper hadn't been with us back then. I liked it here, this was practically the wettest place in the US and there was a near-constant cloud cover. This allowed us to practically act like humans; we only had to stay at home on the few sunny days. Sunshine didn't hurt us, but it made our skin sparkle, so we had to hide from the public eye on days like that.

We were almost at the parking lot now and neatly on time too, so Alice needn't have worried.

"Remember to be careful with your thoughts, guys, Eleazar warned us about the telepath he sensed," I reminded my siblings. Eleazar was part of the Denali clan and he had the ability to sense special talents. It worked best with vampires, but if the power was latent enough in humans, he could tell too. The Denali's had helped us moving and when travelling the forest, he had picked up a talent so powerful that he suspected it to be vampire. But the smell had told him it was human. Not wanting to tempt himself, he didn't dare looking more carefully for the source.

"Do you really think he'll be in our school?" Alice wanted to know.

"I don't know Alice, but better save than sorry. Eleazar said the talent was rough and badly trained, so it would make sense if it was an adolescent," I admitted.

"It's too bad you can't shield us permanently," Emmett complained.

"Yeah, I know, but it works best if you are close by. I wouldn't want to risk accidentally including the telepath in my shield," I sighed.

"Don't worry, Bella, we'll do our best. At least you can shield us during lunch," Rosalie stated.

"Sure, Rose, that would be easy enough," I promised.

"Plus, I'll keep an eye out so that I can catch anything major," Alice made her own promise.

"Okay, we're here, let's calm down and find the reception desk," Jasper stated, wrapping us in a cloud of calm. Where I had my shield and Alice her visions, Jasper had his own tricks. Not only could he sense the emotional atmosphere around him, he could also actually change the moods.

"So where do you think the reception desk is in this place?" Emmett wondered, looking around.

"That one would be a good bet," I said, pointing in the direction of a building labeled 'Front office'.

We got out of the car and move at slow motion, at least slow for us vampires, to the door with the label.

"Hello," Emmett boomed to the lady behind the reception desk, scaring the shit out of her.

"Emmett," I hissed under my breath while I stepped forward to give the lady an encouraging smile.

"Hello, Mrs. …" I started while I searched for a name tag. There wasn't one around, but the lady was kind enough to finish my words for me.

"… Cope," she said.

"We are the Cullens and the Hales, we start school here today," I explained, gesturing towards my sibling.

"Of course," she said, smiling welcoming now. She dug underneath the desk, to resurface a while later with schedules and maps. They were neatly labeled with our names.

"Isabella Cullen?" she asked tentatively.

"That's me, but please call me Bella," I replied, taking over the documents from her with a smile."

"… and this is Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie," I said, pointing to my siblings, whenever she held up another bundle.

"You'll find slips for each teacher to sign in your packages," she explained, "Just hand them over to me at the end of the day, okay?"

We all nodded politely and left again. The other students now started to flow in, so we just went with the stream. After one look at the map, our clear vampire memory would make sure that we'd remember it forever. But since it would look weird for the new kids to easily find their way without consulting the map, we were stuck with the useless prop anyway.

I consulted my schedule and found out that I had PE first. I groaned and Alice raised an eyebrow to me.

"I have PE first!" I explained myself.

"Oh, me too!" she beamed.

That was good, I should probably team up with her for the rest of the year, not to make others too suspicious. We tried to move at human speed, but occasionally we would slip and PE was a likely scene for that.

"Yes, Bella, excellent idea," Alice stated cheerfully.

"Huh?"

"I'd love to be team mates with you," she explained.

"Oh," I replied, concluding she must have seen a future of us teaming up the second I decided that would be for the best. I loved my sister to the core, but at times like this she spooked me. I was fairly convinced she did it on purpose, though, she loved our puzzled expressions way too much.

"You are a little know-it-all, aren't you?" I snickered, poking her, while we headed out to find the proper building.

Gym could have been worse. We apparently ended up in the middle of the volleyball practice and the teacher decided it would be best if we observed for now while the others were playing. We didn't even have to change, but the formless uniforms where handed over to us for next time. Alice looked at them as if they were designed for the sole purpose of torturing her. I chuckled in very low voice at the sight of her disgust. I supposed for a vampire with an addiction to fashionable clothes and expensive designer brands, they were a bit of pain. I couldn't care less, even as a human the most important aspect of clothes to me was the comfy-ness. And for someone like me, who was originally born in the era of corsets, it didn't take an awful lot for them to feel comfortable. This was one of the things I appreciated a lot in the 21st century, comfortable clothes for woman weren't hard to find. But I humored Alice and let her dress me occasionally, which resulted in my wardrobe consisting of designer jeans and shirts rather than the ones from an average-prized store.

So instead of a dull hour of playing at human speed, Alice and I spend a dull hour watching humans play at excruciatingly slow speed.

"See anything you like yet?" Alice asked me.

"Please," I rolled my eyes at her.

Since I was the only one of the family without mate, this little ritual would repeat itself every time we moved to a new place. Carlisle and Rosalie had both found their mates when they were human and mortally wounded. So Alice had taken it upon herself to play matchmaker for me. She would have me check out the candidates so that she could go search their future for near-fatal accidents. Her pretense was that we should be prepared for my debut as a heroine. It was more like an inside joke and either way I really doubted the poor guy would be happy when he found out the extent of the 'brave rescue'. But there was little fun to be found in High School, so I let her have her little pranks.

"No, I can see you haven't," she huffed with glassy eyes, indicating she had used our time on the bench to go future searching.

I sighed in resignation, knowing that there would be no point in trying to talk her out of this anyway. With a little luck, she would get tired of this game before the week was over and I'd be free of it for another 5 years or so.

It appeared I had no more classes together with Alice till after lunch, so at least I'd be free of it for several more hours. My next class was Trigonometry. Even as a human, I detested math, since I wasn't very skilled in it. That changed after the transformation, my bigger brain had no problems wrapping itself around the finer workings of mathematics. But my dislike had stayed nonetheless and that had a lot to do with the teachers. As soon as I entered my class, I knew this year would be no different. The teacher, Mr. Varner, was really your stereotype boring and dry math teacher. And instead of just signing the slip, he also made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I was tempted for one minute to scare him off with one of my vampire signals, but I composed myself in time and forced a non-dangerous smile on my face.

"Hi, I am Bella Cullen, my siblings and I just moved here from Alaska," I kept my introduction short and non-informative. They all would find out soon enough that they best stayed away from us, no need to hint at that now and make everybody even more interested.

I walked toward the only free spot in this classroom. My neighbor seemed a nice girl, she just smiled, introduced herself as Angela Weber and went back to minding her own business. Just perfect, there was no need to discourage her or anything. I made a mental note to team up with her if the need arose to do group-homework. The girl behind me, on the other hand, showed much more interest. After ten minutes of her clearly trying to get my attention, I decided to humor her and turned slowly toward her.

"Hi, I am Jessica Stanley, let me know if there's anything you need, like a guide or help with your homework," she said, rushing her words, probably afraid that I'd turn away before she finished or Mr. Varner would say something to stop her.

I nodded to the girl, making the mental note to avoid her as much as possible. She seemed like the type of girl that would befriend you to get better from it. Apparently I was judged interesting enough to pay attention to. For a vampire that was a bad thing and for the human, well, it was dangerous.

When Mr. Varner finally finished his boring lecture, I was glad to be gone from this class and glad to be escaping from Jessica, who had tried making small talk with me all the time. But as soon as the bell rang, she was next to me and she asked what my next class was.

"Spanish," I replied, sincerely hoping hers would be different.

Of course I had no such luck, so Jessica walked me there, continuously chattering. It was a good thing she did most of the talking, because our back-up story wasn't all too detailed and I really didn't want to be caught up in the middle of lies. I was a terrible liar, a human quality that hadn't changed since my transformation. It was clear that I'd have to discourage Jessica soon, but I had no idea how to do that carefully. It hadn't taken me long to figure out that Jessica was the biggest gossip of the year. She made remarks about everybody who passed us, so it was pretty obvious. This sure was a complication, since it meant I couldn't do anything too obvious or the whole school would know. Scaring her off in a vamp-way was hence out of the question. It would have to be something plainly human, like being extremely rude. I'd have to turn to Rosalie for advice, she was the most experienced in being bitchy. Even as a human, I had been the shy and polite girl. And of all the Cullens, I was definitely the worst actor, so it would definitely be a challenge.

Mrs. Goff, the Spanish teacher, had planned a little play for today. We had to memorize some sentences of our textbook and play them for our class mates. The story we had to perform was about a girl and a boy, so we were to pair up with somebody of the other gender. At least that meant that I could get rid of Jessica. Jessica was very quick to ask a boy named Mike Newton, so I suspected she had a little crush on him. The boy didn't look 100% happy with it and from the looks of it, I was fairly certain that he was actually planning on picking me. A guy named Tyler Crowley beat him to it instead. This was the macho type of guy that had dated the whole grade and definitely _not_ my favorite type of guy. Thankfully Tyler was so full of himself that he kept bragging about himself the whole time, so much like with Jessica, I didn't need to supply conversation. It was hard to pretend that I didn't already know the sentences by heart after reading it once. But luckily Tyler wasn't that perceptive and mostly preoccupied with himself and his own lines, so I guessed nobody noticed anything. Another nice plus was that I hadn't come across the story yet, so at least that part of Spanish would be new to me.

When the embarrassing ordeal was finally over, I could head to my next class, History. To my delight, none over my over-interested classmates from Spanish had this subject with me, so I was finally alone.

"See you at lunch?" Jessica waved me goodbye with a hopeful glance in her eyes.

"Sure, sure," I nodded.

As happy as I was to be rid of my unwanted admirers, I didn't really look forward to History. It's not that I dreaded the topic per se, but I had yet to find the teacher that could tell the tales as convincingly as Carlisle, who had lived it all. To make matters worse, it appeared we were currently dealing with World War I. It was kind of sad for me to hear teachers tell about this glorious period where we Americans saved the world. Having lived through it as a human, I could tell you it was all but glorious! Not all my human memories were clear, however, but I remembered the angst vey well. And of course, hearing the events being told also brought back dim human memories.

When the bell rang once more, it finally announced that part of the day that I was actually looking forward too: Lunch. Not because of the food, obviously, but because of my siblings. I was really curious how their day had been so far. I wasn't until I saw Jessica waving to me, that I remembered my promise to her.

I smiled a humorless smile to her while we both queued for food. Props in my case, much needed nutrition in hers. When we paid, I started walking toward the table with the rest of my siblings. Jessica followed me readily but stopped dead when she saw Emmett, who wasn't exactly putting on his most loving smile at the moment.

"Er, perhaps we have lunch together some other time," she announced, "I am sure you have a lot to discuss with your siblings."

"Sure, sure," I said.

"Thanks," I muttered to Emmett so low that only vampire ears could catch it, "I thought I was never going to get rid of her."

"You have always been too kind, little sis," he replied in equally low voice, referring to the fact that the normal danger signs emanating from us vampires had never worked very well for me.

As Emmett smiled his big smile, a green-eyed boy with ruffled hair skidded right between us very quickly and Emmett gave him a dark look for having the nerves.

"Sorry," he said under his breathe while never slowing down his run.

I stared after him in surprise. I wondered what this curious boy was running from so fast that he didn't even take in the normal vampire danger marks. And why did he apologize when neither of us had said anything?


	3. Chapter 3: Lab partners

**A/N Hey there, I don't know if people are still reading this, but I finally got back into writing. I am actually quite ashamed to leave the few readers that I have hanging so long like this… Anyway, you've waited long enough, so on with it!**

**Chapter 3: Lab partners**

I was speeding through the corridors of Forks High School to my next class, Biology. I had been in my car again over lunch and I lost track of time so I was running late now. I was in such a hurry that I bumped into one of the new kids, who was having Mr. Banner sign her slip. She let out a menacing hiss at this abrupt contact.

"I am sorry," I apologized to the girl while I continued to my desk.

It wasn't until I sunk into my chair that I noticed there were some peculiar things about this little exchange. Firstly, her body temperature had been rather cold. Secondly, her body had been hard as stone. And last but definitely not least, I hadn't heard any of her thoughts. That had never happened to me, so I looked up to find her and try again.

She was walking in my direction, so I assumed Mr. Banner had assigned her to my table, since it held the last empty chair in the room. I could clearly hear Mr. Banner's thoughts behind her.

_1, 2, 3 ..._

He was clearly counting something to distribute to our class. But from the girl… nothing.

She had reached my table now, so I smiled to her and introduced myself.

"Hi, I am Edward Masen and I am really sorry about earlier," I said.

"I am Bella Cullen," she replied in a delightful voice, which sounded like bells ringing.

"And it's okay, really, you didn't hurt me, I was mostly taken by surprise," she continued. She was being perfectly polite, but on the other hand she seemed to keep some reservations.

"I am glad, I wouldn't like to start off on the wrong foot. After all we are supposed to be lab partners," I said casually, grinning, intentionally attempting to make small talk. I was hoping that talking to her would help unravel the mystery of her cloaked thoughts.

But she just smiled and turned her attention to Mr. Banner, who was now supplying all tables with microscopic slides. So I tried to focus harder on hearing thoughts around me. I should have known it had been a bad idea. The head ache soon hit me so badly that it made me moan. I lowered my head, dropping it in my hands, and began rubbing my temples to lessen the pain. But obviously it was to no avail. When I looked up again, I found Bella looking at me intently with one eyebrow raised questioningly. I didn't need my mind-reading abilities to know what she wanted.

"My headache just got worse," I explained, shrugging. She nodded in understanding, as if it was the most natural thing ever to say.

I hadn't initially intended to do so, but something about this mysterious stranger made me want to explain it more carefully. It also wanted to leave her with a better first impression than me being the guy that rudely bumped into her.

"It's always better away from the people. That's why I was late, I had been hiding in the piece and quiet of my car," I elaborated.

"So that's why you were in such hurry to leave during lunch that you ran straight in between my brother and me," she chuckled.

"Oh, was that why he wasn't too happy with me?" I wondered.

Bella gave me a very intense look, as if trying to understand me and coming up with nothing.

"What do you mean?" she finally asked.

At that moment it hit me that I had mistaken her brother's mental voice for his regular one due to the lack of familiarity with the tone of his voice. I had simply assumed that I hadn't only heard his warning '_Watch it, kiddo_' in my head and apologized. I mentally chastised myself for being so careless and hoped that Bella wouldn't pay too much attention to my remark. In an effort to discard it as unimportant, I shrugged and focused on Mr. Banner who was now calling the class to order.

"Alright class, in today's lab you should order the slides according to the phases of mitosis," he announced. This should be piece of cake to me. I had already done this with Whitefish blastula back in Phoenix, where I had been in an advance placement program.

"Everything clear?" he asked and the class mumbled yes or nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, get started," he ordered.

"Ladies first?" I asked Bella, turning to her.

"Sure," she said, shrugging. After a brief look in the eyepiece of the microscope, she declared the slide to be anaphase.

"Can I check?" I asked, dubious about the fact that she was so fast.

"Feel free," she said nonchalantly, humor in her voice. She had been dead right, though, so perhaps she was advanced too.

"You're right. Can you give me the next slide?" I asked, holding my hand open. She dropped it there without touching me, so I wondered whether she avoided skin contact on purpose. I installed the slide and refocused the eyepiece.

"This one's prophase," I said, almost as quickly as she had come up with the solution earlier.

"Can I check?" she asked, apparently having decided it was her turn to doubt my judgment. I slid the microscope toward her and she eagerly peaked into the eyepiece. It was amusing to see her disappointment when she discovered I had been right. But she recomposed herself and was already inserting the next slide in mere seconds.

"Interphase," she declared the next one to be and I didn't even bother double checking this time. I simply nodded and went on to the next one. We were finished in mere minutes, so I took the opportunity to come up with more chit chat.

"So, where you in an advanced placement program too?" I asked, probing for the reason behind her knowledge.

"Something like that," she chuckled. Her laughter was a delightful sound, so I couldn't help myself and found myself staring at her. That was when I noticed the beautiful but weird color of her eyes, they were of a warm butterscotch's brown.

"Your eyes have an interesting color, they are almost golden," I complimented her. My remark seemed to have startled her and it surprised me. Surely with such an unusual eye color I wouldn't be the first to make a remark about that? She stared at me for a while and it made me feel all dizzy.

"You are an unusual boy, Edward Masen," she stated before unlocking our gazes and I was completely baffled by her remark. Before I could ask her what she meant with that, Mr. Banner started walking over to our table. He looked grumpy, but his thoughts fortunately revealed why.

_Figures, Edward probably used his advanced background to impress the new girl. Not that I can't see why, she is rather pretty, like all of the new kids are._

"We are all set Mr. Banner. Bella identified three and I did the other two," I stated happily, quickly taking away his prejudice.

"Is that so?" He asked, turning to face Bella.

"Yes, sir," Bella confirmed happily.

_Well, Edward, it seems like you finally found your match. It's good that you two ended paired up, so the others can still learn something for themselves._

I had to mask a smile at Mr. Banner's thought, but Bella noticed and she shot me another curious glance.

"I see, well, I don't have anything else for you to do, I am afraid," Mr. Banner said aloud, after clearing his throat.

"It's okay," I shrugged, massaging my temple in the hopes of reducing some of the pressure, which was of course in vain.

"Is something the matter, Edward?" Mr. Banner asked, somewhat worried.

"Just a headache, nothing that I can't manage," I replied, trying to sound nonchalant. Even without reading his mind, I knew Mr. Banner wasn't buying it.

"Just go to the infirmary, then, it's nothing to be ashamed of and after all, you did already finish your task," Mr. Banner said firmly.

"Would you care to join him, Bella, so you know where to find it if you'd need it in future?"

"Yes, Mr. Banner, I think that's an excellent idea. Better safe than sorry, right?" Bella replied.

"Right, let's be on our way, then. Thank you, Mr. Banner."

"Ah, freedom at last, I really ought to thank you for your head ache, but that would not be a very nice thing to do, I guess," Bella chuckled.

"That boring, huh? You've done the lab before?" I asked.

"You could say that," Bella laughed even harder at that.

"By the way, why didn't you have a lab partner before? You are fairly good-looking and apparently a Biology expert," Bella wanted to know.

Wow, this girl was direct. I really didn't know what to tell her. I thought 'Yeah, I chased them all away, since I am a freak' wouldn't really digest well. So I shrugged.

"There were a few girls at first, but they gave up on me because I wasn't interested in them the way they would have wanted me to be," I finally said. It was close enough to the truth. They _did_ want more from me than I cared giving, but I mostly knew that because I heard their infatuated thoughts. I also skipped the part where I ignored them more than necessary in the hope it would encourage them to go find another lab partner.

"I see," she said and again I was frustrated that I couldn't hear her thoughts. I knew I shouldn't be so interested in hearing what this girl thought of me, but for some reason she just fascinated me.

All of the sudden she chuckled, probably because she thought of something funny. Since I couldn't know what it was the usual way, well usual for me at least, I was stuck with asking her to find out.

"What's so funny?" I inquired.

"Jessica said you were a freak, best to be left alone. I guess you weren't interested in her either, huh?" she explained.

I shuddered in fear while I remembered the period where she viciously tried to impose herself on me. She had given me a very hard time trying to avoid her vivid imagination and the things she wanted us to do.

"Hell, no," I admitted.

"She is rather persisting, isn't she?" Bella remarked.

"Tell me about it," I said, shivering once more at the memory of those dark times. Bella must have seen my involuntary reaction.

"That bad, huh? What did she do, throw herself at you?" she wondered.

"Something like that, yes," I replied, although she mostly did that in her head. But to me, the effect was basically the same, of course.

"You didn't like any of the girls? You never tried dating them or something?" Bella continued her quizzing.

"Nope," I answered, popping the 'p'.

"Why? Weren't they pretty enough for you?" she demanded.

"Please," I said, distinctively rolling my eyes, "On the outside maybe, but on the inside…"

"How can you be so sure of that?" Bella continued the interrogation.

"Well, let's just say I am rather good at reading people," I explained. That was to be taken very literally, of course, but I wasn't gonna tell her that.

"Ah, so what do you make of me?" she wanted to know.

"Well, you're very beautiful on the outside that's for sure," I confided.

"But I find you very hard to read," I added reluctantly, very bothered by the fact I couldn't hear any thoughts of her.

She just laughed heartily, a wonderful sound that had me dazed.


	4. Chapter 4: Small talk

**A/N Thanks to everyone who is still with me and welcome to new readers. I'll do my utmost to update once a week! I've mapped out the entire storyline now and the next chapter is in the works, so this time I am seriously in it.**

**L Since your review was anonymous, I can't reply to you directly, so I'll answer your question here. Yes, although my mothertongue is Flemish, I think in English when I write. Can't say I never need a dictionary, though. And for expressions or odd words that I can't find in there, I sometimes bother one of my native speaking friends overseas. But my job as a scientist requires speaking and writing English on a daily basis, so I am pretty used to it. I also read a lot in English (I read the original version of Twilight for example) and I recently took a creative writing course in English. Since I had a fairly nice mark for that, I reckon it wasn't too obvious that I am not a native speaker ;-) Feel free to PM me if you want to know something else (you'll have to set up an account for that probably). Thanks for reading and have fun on this site!**

**Chapter 4: Small talk**

What a curious day this had been so far, I never imagined my first day at Forks High School could be so interesting. And that had a lot to do with the beautiful green-eyed boy that was currently making conversation with me.

The first time that I had seen this boy had been during lunch, while he rushed past me in a whirl mumbling apologies. I had then decided to make good use of my unwanted acquaintance Jessica Stanley and her never ending stream of gossip. So when lunch time was almost over, I had casually strolled over to her and asked her who the curious green-eyed boy had been. That was all it took to get her started.

"Ah, yes, you mean Edward Masen!" she had exclaimed;

"He moved over here in the beginning of the term. He's gorgeous, of course, but also a freak," she confided.

"How so?" I encouraged her.

"Well, he's always all alone, keeping strictly to himself. So seriously, don't waste your time," she fumed. A small smile had crept upon my features at this last revelation, since it was clear she was talking from first hand experience.

"Lots of people keep to themselves," I had said to his defense, but mainly to my own, since that was exactly what my siblings and I did for the obvious reasons.

"Yeah, but he also gives you this look, you know, like he is seeing right through you. And he just often says strange things," she added.

"Hm, interesting," I commented. Jessica had clearly wanted to add some more juicy and creepy details, but luckily the bell rang at that time, so I was spared.

"Oh, well, thanks for the warning, see you later," I had quickly said to effectively end the conversation.

Later when I was waiting for Mr. Banner to sign my slip, he had literary bumped into me. I had really been shocked by the sudden contact with this warm bundle. But his smell had also been much more appealing than your average human. Fortunately I was very well-fed and I had my exquisite self-control. That feature had always been present, even as a newborn, so I assumed it had something to do with my mental shield. I guessed it protected me from a lot of things, including my own thirst.

So when I was over the first shock of the initial impact, I became even more intrigued by this curious creature. Like Jessica had said, he was extremely gorgeous and even my vampire eyes were captivated by his beauty. Also, unlike most humans, he didn't seem to have the natural reservation towards vampires. He had already proven that during the lunch incident, although that could have been a coincidence. But there was no way a normal human could accidentally bump into a vampire. Our danger signals were designed for humans to keep their distance involuntary. Mine were weaker than average, but even then his danger-sensors should have noticed my presence long before the impact.

I could see that Jessica had a point, when she had claimed the boy said the strangest things. But rather than being repulsed by it, I found myself even more intrigued by him. I knew I shouldn't, though, it wasn't safe to find Edward interesting, especially not for him. But I really couldn't help myself, it was as if there was an inexplicable need for me to find out more about him, like I was being pulled closer to him by an invisible force. I had never felt this way, but the burning desire was consuming me even more than my raging thirst. I even suspected the latter would be more easily quenched.

I didn't know what had come over me when I asked Edward what he made of me. It had never mattered to me what a human thought of me, but this human was somehow different. I had an inexplicable need to be liked by him. So even though I regretted my sudden outburst, I really hadn't expected to get an honest answer in the first place. So I was pleasantly surprised to see he really seemed to mean what he said about not reading me. His gaze had darkened in genuine frustration and it was such a cute sight that it made me laugh.

Thankfully he was too baffled by my reaction to ask any more questions, so I decided to change the subject.

"So, these headaches, you have them often?" I asked.

"Yeah, I started having them a few years ago. They gradually got worse, but it's slightly better now than we don't live in Phoenix anymore," he explained.

"Hm, is that why you moved here?" I questioned.

He nodded absentmindedly, but I couldn't help the feeling there was more to it than he was saying.

"You know, my Dad's a doctor, maybe he could help?"

"Don't think so, I've seen several already," he replied nonchalantly, clearly pretending that it was no big deal. Regardless of what he was claiming, now I was sure that there was something amiss and I resolved to talking to Carlisle about it. The man had several hundred years of expertise, so if anyone would be able to help Edward, it would be him. I was awoken from my train of thought by Edward's abrupt halt.

"So, here goes nothing," he announced right before entering a door labeled 'School nurse'.

"Hi, Edward, another aspirin, I take it?" the blond school nurse asked, clearly familiar with his sufferings. She was rather young, but somehow radiated capability. I pondered over it and decided it was probably the odd mix of kindness and stern that her face managed to express. Her vivid eyes were twinkling, but they looked like they would pierce right through you. I imagined it would help in discouraging the student who planned to fake illness. The woman didn't seem the type to put up with that kind of bullshit.

"Yes, Sharon, if you please," he said.

"This is Bella Cullen, by the way, one of the new kids, Mr. Banner suggested she follow me here since our lab work was already finished."

Sharon nodded in reply, her eyes lingering for a few seconds on me before turning to the cupboard to fetch Edward's medicine, which he swallowed with a sigh using the glass of water that Sharon had handed him next.

"Do you mind if I go outside for a bit? That usually helps," Edward asked.

"Sure thing, do I need to excuse you for your next class?"

"Nah, it'll be okay when the pill kicks in…"

Edward and I strolled outside.

"Wanna go to my car and listen to some music?" he asked.

"Sure, what music do you have?"

"Er, mostly classical music?"

Edward seemed a bit embarrassed by that and he looked at me with his big green eyes, anxiously biting his lip. It was simply adoring, although I hadn't expected to see such a look on a boy of his age. I thought they were all about being cool and macho. But then again, those boys usually liked a somewhat different music type.

"Sounds fine to me!"

Edward's face lit up happily and once more I felt incredibly drawn to him. I had to remember to keep my distance and remind myself he was a fragile human. The minute I stepped in his car, I became acutely aware of that fact. His fragrance was very potent in there and I could taste the venom dripping in my mouth. I actually had to cut out my air supply to prevent me from doing something foolish. Edward was blissfully unaware of my struggle as the first notes of Claire de Lune filled the air. It was getting increasingly different to stay put and just when I started panicking, my mobile was ringing. I didn't need to check the display to know that it would be Alice. Trust your omniscient sister to step in at the right time.

"Sorry, it's my sister, I better pick up," I said while exiting the car.

"Alice?"

"Bella? Are you alright?" my sister asked, frantic.

"Yes, thank you, your timing was perfect," I told her.

"You're welcome and you can pay me back by explaining all about the cutie tonight," she demanded.

I groaned. "You are way too happy about this…"

I heard Edward close the car behind me.

"Bella, our next class is about to start," he said.

"Okay, thanks, Edward, gotta go Alice, Math is calling me…"


	5. Chapter 5: The rest of the Cullens

**A/N: Special thanks to Ninasa1122 for reviewing! I was almost thinking it would be very ironic if nobody was interested anymore at the point where I finally decided to get serious about it, lol. So the review came right on time ;-)**

**Chapter 5: The rest of the Cullens**

It had been nice to take a little break after biology, especially since Mr. Banner had sent Bella with me. I wasn't sure why he decided to send her with me, too much of a headache to listen in, but I wasn't complaining. It was remarkably refreshing not to know in advance what someone was going to say. The only moment I regretted Bella's mysterious blank mind thing, was when we were talking about music. Normally I would 'hear' in advance what music styles the other person liked, but now I was forced to come clean and admit my liking for classical music without any hints of how it would be taken. I was stunned to realize how vulnerable that made me feel. After all, I spent years without this foreknowledge and I hadn't realized how much I had begun to count on it. Thankfully Bella took it well, or at least I could only assume she did. My mind reading had taught me that what a person said wasn't necessarily what they really thought. Jessica, for instance, had perfected the art of being friendly in your face while she was venomous in her head. But people like Angela were as kind on the outside as on the inside. I just had to hope Bella was more like the latter.

All too soon it had been time to get back for the next class. Like I told Sharon, it was a bit better by then, but unlike what I claimed it had little to do with the aspirin. I had learned early on that medication wasn't a miraculous solution to my problem. Sure, it did help a bit, but it was more like a volume switch. The stronger the medication, the quieter the voices in my head became. I think also the radius of my 'antenna' reduced a bit, but I wasn't very sure about it. No mostly the fact that I had been able to escape outdoors had done the trick. Too bad I couldn't make a habit out of that. When I arrived in Geography, I resolved not to try to read any minds anymore. But when one of the new kids entered the class, I was tempted to try anyway. I knew not all of them were related, but I was curious to see if they had Bella's little quirk too or an insight in it. This sibling of Bella's was blond and beautiful and I immediately felt sorry for her. The Geo teacher liked ogling the girls a bit too much and he wasn't even trying to be subtle with it. Even if this girl…

"I am Rosalie Hale, can you sign my slip please?" she just introduced herself.

… okay, even if Rosalie didn't have my mind reading abilities, she would pretty much know what he was thinking anyway.

_Oh, hello there gorgeous. We're gonna have loads of fun in this class. Hm, really nice boobs, sexy curves, yep, you just made my day… Hm, looking forward to summer already, definitely going to sabotage the airco when your group is on._

Ew, just, ew. It was just like I expected.

_Oh, that just figures, the only class I don't share with Emmett has to have a perv teacher. Just perfect! Must find out where he hangs out during breaks and make sure to pass with him. I hope this little man gets easily intimidated, otherwise he got something else coming._

Ah, so Rosalie had a normal mind, albeit a devious one. Not that I could blame her. If I wasn't mistaken, Emmett was the bulky guy. A brother like that sure could come in handy, I had to agree with her. Perhaps that would be one break worthy of spending inside. Although from the death glare Mr. Jones was now getting, Rosalie herself knew a thing or two about intimidation as well. Unfortunately, the teacher wasn't impressed.

_Oooh, spunky one. Nice!_

Oh, well, maybe Emmett would do a better job.

In my next class, I was faced with a third Cullen. This time the small little girl that acted very hyper. She had told the teacher that her name was Alice. When she looked around, her gaze landed on me.

_Oh, so that's the boy Bella was with earlier, no wonder she was intrigued, he's just gorgeous._

Oh, great, another girl that would come after my looks.

_Not as great as my Jasper, though._

Or maybe not. It seemed that all the Cullens were full of surprises. I was beginning to wonder what could be expected from the last newcomer. Perhaps luck would be on my side and I'd be seeing him in my last class.

Well, I didn't see him in my last class. Not exactly, at least. Jessica's mind was screaming images of him. From what I gathered, he was the brooding type and Jessica somehow deemed that a very attractive thing. She was very complimentary about his other assets as well, so much so that it was really grossing me out. It looked like Alice would have to take a leaf out of her sister's book, because I knew from experience Jessica could be very persistent. I hoped for their sake that she had become better in taking a hint than she was in the beginning of the year while she intended to hook me up. I ended up resorting to being rude to get the point across and she still looked at me longingly occasionally.

Unfortunately I didn't see Bella anymore either, so I still wasn't closer to solving the mystery of her silent thoughts. I left to home a bit frustrated with the riddle she posed, school was bound to get more interesting with the Cullens in it.

The smell of my favorite food, lasagna, greeting me upon coming home. I found my mother in the kitchen.

"Hi Mom, how was your day off? I see you've been cooking."

"Hi Edward! It was great, I found you-know-what for you-know-who."

Uhuh, my mom had been dying to get a chance to buy my Dad this pencil sketch she had caught him ogling in the antique store a few weeks ago. But since the shop was slightly out of town and closed early, she hadn't been able to purchase it behind his back before today. Originally, my parents were going to be off from work together today. But Dad's day off was cancelled at the last moment, so Mom apparently had seen her chance today.

"Great! It's skillfully hidden, I take it?"

"Yeah, I put it in your science book, actually. I don't believe he will find a reason to browse that one."

"Nah, I guess not, I'll be careful with opening it, then."

"Good!"

"Can't wait to see the look on his face when he opens the present," I grinned, "I am going to start at my homework now."

Mom waved me off and busied herself with cooking again. The dinner was delicious, but it was a bit more subdued than usually. It seemed Dad was still a bit tickled at having to work.

"Great lasagna, Mom, as usual." I complimented my mother's cooking in the hopes of getting conversation started.

"Thanks, dear," she replied as Dad grunted something as well, supposedly in agreement with my comment.

"How was school, Edward?" That was my mother catching on with what I was doing.

"More interesting than usual, what with the new kids arriving and all."

"New kids?" Dad was apparently all ears now.

"Yeah, the Cullens, don't know much about them, but their Dad seems to be a doctor. Oh, and they're all adopted, too."

"Well, that's admirable, it can't be easy with so many teenagers in the house."

I shrugged.

"Wonder what kind of doctor he is," Mom mused. Even without my skills I could tell she was hoping he could be of use with my headaches.

"Don't know, but one of the kids suggested I'd go see him for my headaches. But I don't feel up to yet another physical exam," I learned fast enough to smother that line of thoughts before they voiced it. It wasn't as if I could go around and announce the real cause of the symptoms, so there was no need for my parents to pay lots of money for something that was doomed to fail anyway.

"If you're sure, honey. But how did the topic come up then?"

"Oh, I got partnered with one of the girls, Bella, in biology when a bad case hit me. The teacher sent her along with me to the nurse."

"I see." And with that comment the case was, fortunately, closed.

**A/N So that's it for this week, I've already planned out the next chapter's content, so I hope to get it written out by next week.**


	6. Chapter 6: Coming home

**A/N: Wow, so much response this time! It's truly amazing! Thank you everyone for reviewing!**

**Chapter 6: Coming home**

"Hi kids!" Carlisle greeted as we piled out of the car.

Rosalie was still a bit bummed that she couldn't drive her red sports car and had to drive a less faster yet less conspicuous black Volvo instead. The idea was to blend in, but judging from the state of the cars that the other kids were driving, I was sure we weren't fooling anybody. The only car on the parking lot that was equally new and shiny as ours, was the one that Edward drove and I was pretty positive that had a lot to do with the fact that he was relatively new around here too. I reckoned that his car hadn't stood out in his previous high school.

"So how was your day?" Esme asked.

"You know the usual, everybody staring and dreaming to get in our pants," Rosalie grumbled.

She seemed to be annoyed by the attention, but knowing my sister as I did, she actually reveled in it. She would never want anyone but Emmett touching her, of course, but she did like to feel wanted.

"Well, you don't have it that bad, Emmett scares away the enthusiastic males, where nothing stands in between them and me," I complained jokingly.

"Oh, hush, you'll find your mate soon enough," said Alice.

I arched my eyebrow towards her.

"Says the one who immediately had visions of her mate as soon as she was turned," I huffed, "Unless you know something you haven't told me yet?"

Alice suddenly found all vampire eyes locked on her. I guess I should be upset that they were all so interested in my love life, or lack thereof, but I couldn't really blame them. They always felt sorry for me being the odd man, or rather woman, out, especially since knowing how wonderful it was to have a mate. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me, but I never was one to be brooding. They were happy together and since I loved them all, I couldn't begrudge them their bliss. I could be patient, after all, time was something I had plenty of, I could wait a couple of centuries if need be.

"Er, no, but I really have a good feeling about it…"

If Alice were still human, she probably would have blushed in embarrassment. But with things as they were, all that gave her away was her deliberate avoidance to look me in the eyes and Jasper's protective hovering. At times like this, I felt sorry for him. I was utterly glad my gift was purely protective.

Since it wasn't really Jasper's fault and hence not really fair he should be suffering for it, I decided to help him out.

"So, Carlisle, now that we know how many men Rosalie had to brave, how many nurses were hitting on you?"

"Ah, in my face? None, the wedding ring and me talking about my lovely wife, scared them off. But behind my back, plenty gossip on my hotness…"

"Too bad they don't know about our vampire hearing, no, honey?"

"Quite right, Esme, quite right. I bet they'd be as embarrassed as Alice as they find out…"

"Sorry, Jazz, I tried."

Jasper shrugged and went after Alice who had already stormed off. Oh, well, I was sure he would be able to kiss everything better. So I decided to breach the subject of Edward's migraine while she was otherwise occupied, no need to give ammo to her persistent matchmaking, it would already last long enough like it was. I had no intention whatsoever to prolong my suffering.

"Have you ever come across a type of headache that gets better outside, Carlisle?"

"Well, there could be several reasons, why?"

"Well, there's this boy in my biology class, Edward, and he suffers from these symptoms. He seemed really in pain, so I proposed him to talk to you. He also mentioned they were worse when he still lived in Phoenix. Does that ring any bells?"

"No, but perhaps if I could ask him about other specific symptoms, we could get somewhere."

"Well, he didn't want to, says no doctor has been able to help him so far. So I was kind of hoping you would be able to catch something they missed."

"I can understand that and perhaps you are right, but until I examine him, I won't be able to tell. But if he doesn't want…"

"Yeah, you're right, but there's probably not much I can say to him to convince him without blowing our cover."

"I'm sorry, Bella."

"Yeah, me too. I am heading up to my bedroom."

"That much homework already?"

"Nothing that I can't finish in 30 minutes; but I sure pity the humans sometimes."

But when I was in my room, it wasn't homework that I intended to do, at least, not yet. After all, it wasn't like I needed sleep or had any interesting nightly activity to look forward to, unlike the rest of my family. Of course, I could always go on a hunt, but I had fed recently and it wasn't much fun on my own.

So, if Carlisle needed to see Edward to make a diagnosis, I needed to get him here under a pretext. I couldn't tell him that my dad was a head ache specialist, while his résumé and function in Forks hospital would contradict that. I might have been able to pull that off in a big city with a many big hospitals, but in a small town, word would get around and it would be a disaster. Since I couldn't very well tell the truth, I had to make them bump into each other. Perhaps I could trip Edward accidentally-on-purpose after school and talk him into meeting my dad to check him up. Between my vampire strength and speed, I could most likely make sure no real harm would be done.

"Bella! What the hell are you planning that I just saw Edward become one of us?"

"Er, sorry, Alice, I just want him to meet dad, but obviously what I was thinking wasn't such a good idea…"

Hm, so far for avoiding real harm. Evidently he would get hurt very badly if Carlisle had to turn him to save him. Maybe I just needed to get us to do a project in biology and bring him here to work on it? I could easily slip up about the headaches when Carlisle was in hearing range.

"Bella, you're doing it again!"

Huh? That was confusing, how could inviting him over cause him so much harm? Unless Jasper would loose control? But how could Alice see that coming if the date wasn't even set? Okay, I needed another way.

"Still doing it…" Alice sing-song voice now definitely had this teasing edge to it, it was pretty annoying.

"Alice, how on earth could deciding I needed to plot a way to get Edward to talk to Carlisle cause him to become one of us?"

"How am I supposed to know, I only see the end result."

"Really helpful, Alice, but I got the message, no more plotting."

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. I did my best not to think about Edward while the rest of the household was more pleasantly engaged. I wouldn't live it down if Alice was disturbed by visions while making love.

In the morning, I was actually eager to get to class. I was developing an unhealthy obsession with Edward and his mysteriousness and I was determined to solve the puzzle before the whole household would start on me.

By lunch time, my good mood was starting to fade away, as I hadn't been able to see Edward anywhere. I had had plenty of Jessica-the-gossip instead, who seemed still intend on warning me off Edward. I guess she saw me as competition, despite the fact that she had already been turned down. It would have been informative on Edward's character, if her judgment on his freakishness had substance. However, as it was, it seemed all Edward had to have done to be labeled freak, was ignore her and her peers and prefer solitude. I honestly couldn't see why that was so wrong. Okay, most high school kids lived for socializing, but there were always those few mature ones that seemed to realize that not all in life was about the latest fashion or yesterday's soap opera episode.

I strolled towards the table with my siblings, armed with unappetizing food.

"Hey guys, shall I put up my sh…"

"Don't!" Alice exclaimed with a tiny bit of horror on her face, "If you put up your defenses, Edward is going to come here and ask all sorts of questions that we really don't want to answer."

Huh, imagine that, as if Edward wasn't already mysterious enough. Now I had one more piece of puzzle to solve…

**A/N So that's it for this week, I hope to see you next week!**


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